Can you post a screenshot please?

Also please post full system specs including the dosbox version.

Civilization 2 will run fin on anything up to xp. It doesn't like 64bit processors, so I have to run mine on a virtual xp machine.

A screenshot i can't make. But if i start civilization in Windows, it changes to a DOS-like screen (black with white text) and takes only this Line "This program cannot be run in DOS mode".
Then it changes back to Windows.

But now the informations about my system:
I use
Dosbox-Version:
dosbox 0.73

System:
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
Gnome 2.30.2

And here my Dosbox-Config without commentlines:

[sdl] fullscreen=false fulldouble=false fullresolution=original windowresolution=1024x768 output=surface autolock=false sensitiv […]
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[sdl]
fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=1024x768
output=surface
autolock=false
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true

[dosbox]
language=
machine=svga_s3
captures=capture
memsize=16

[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal2x

[cpu]
core=auto
cputype=auto
cycles=auto
cycleup=500
cycledown=20

[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

[midi]
mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=22050

[gus]
gus=false
gusrate=22050
gusbase=240
gusirq=5
gusdma=3
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

[speaker]
pcspeaker=true
pcrate=22050
tandy=auto
tandyrate=22050
disney=true

[joystick]
joysticktype=auto
timed=true
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=true

[serial]
serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[dos]
xms=true
ems=false
umb=true
keyboardlayout=auto

[ipx]
ipx=false

[autoexec]
mount a /home/tigerle/.dosbox/a
mount c /home/tigerle/.dosbox/c
c:\

For Windows 3.11 i have installed the s3-driver, but it didn't work before i had installed this driver, too.

Edit:
i forgot informations about my hardware:
Memory: 993 MB
Chip: 2x Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1,60 GHz
It's a 32-bit Computer

if your main OS is linux, id recommend wine instead of dosbox for this game. civ2 is a windows game, and just because you got windows 3.1 to run in dosbox does not mean it will then run civ2.

Civilization 2 doesn't really work under wine 😉
It startes, but in a short time, it will crash. You can read it on Wine-HQ, too. If it would work with wine, i wouldn't try it with DosBox.

The readme has information about how to take a screenshot.

To clarify, "This program cannot be run in DOS mode" is the standard message that appears when a Win32 application is attempted to run in DOS (including DOSBox and Windows 3.11). What version of Windows are you trying to run it on?

Also, you should be using DOSBox 0.74.

And if it is 32bit, maybe you need to install win32s (if so, the CD probably has the setup). Or it just won't run on Win 3.1x